Monday, May 14, 2012

Run Forrest Run

3. Run a marathon. I've run two marathons before. Once I didn't train (naivety and age were on my side) and once I did. I felt worse when I did. I would love to qualify for Boston someday. That is one nice thing about getting older, the qualifying times will only increase. Cheers to Boston at forty?

My legs hurt!

I am some kind of sore today, but it is worth it because I had a great race and an even better weekend. If you had asked me about the weekend last night, before I laid my tired bones in a warm bath, I might not have had the same opinion. Marathons are hard! I think I am more of a "half girl" at heart.

As an added bonus I can check another thing off my "to do before I turn thirty" list. I feel a little guilty because I had it in the back of my mind that I might run a marathon this Spring when I made my list. I'll consider a 26 mile race my freebie ;)

Thanks so much for all the advice about the whole taking Violet to Fredericton vs. dancing thing. It was really fun and she never mentioned dancing once. I think she is totally oblivious to the fact she missed the recital, which makes me feel better. She had a great weekend and she has decided she wants to go on a "roadie" every week.

The weekend flew by. Fredericton is such a pretty city, I haven't really spent much time there, but I get the impression it is a seriously underrated town. The marathon course was gorgeous; it was mostly on a trail along a river, it was way nicer than any running trail I've been on in Halifax. The UNB campus is really pretty, I got a great view of it on the run. Best of all I got to catch up with one of my oldest friends who happily hasn't changed one iota.

Of course Ms. Violet kept us entertained the whole time, here are a few of my favourite Violet moments:

Literally thirty seconds into the car ride (for those of you who know where I live, we hadn't even hit North street) Violet looked at Laura and said, "are we almost there". I didn't know kids actually said that. I thought it was a bad sitcom joke...

When we got to the hotel Violet jumped on the bed, lay on her back and said, "I love living in a hotel Nana." A girl after my own heart.

When I promised Violet a swim in the hotel pool I envisioned the four of us girls playing in an empty pool. That is not quite how the evening unfolded. Unfortunately for us the pool was full of teenagers -- too many hormones, too little common sense for my liking (e.g., cannonballing right next to a toddler). There were no adults in the pool. My mum and sister got cold feet and cheered Violet and I on from the deck. As we all know, Violet can't swim so I got cold everything. Isn't it the worst when you are only half in the water and people splash you? I definitely gave a few "Harris double-whammies" to those who dared to get close. Holy fun vacuum! Wait, this is a list of my favourite memories...the cute little story that came out of this incident was when Violet sat on the top step that led into the pool, in barely two inches of water, petrified to take another step, anyway, she got pretty comfortable on that top step, eventually she splashed and squealed with delight. After a few minutes she looked at me and said without any irony, "I wish my dad could see me now" like she had just one an Olympic gold medal. She was so proud of herself. We really need to get to the pool more often!

On our way home we stopped at a farmer's market. Violet asked me if she could get something to take home for her daddy. The market had lots of delicious looking baked goods that I knew Jeff would like so I said sure. Violet walked around, thinking about what Jeff would like, then she spotted the Babybel cheese -- you know those little round cheeses covered in red wax. She choose a gouda round for him. The cheese had a huge orange sticker on it that said "99 cents". She told me, "I just love that sticker"...She held on to that cheese the rest of the way home, just itching to give it to him. Gross and hilarious, but what a little sweetheart.

I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wish I did (none of my mum and I on mother's day), but I'll leave you with a few.

What did you get up to this weekend?

xo

Em

{and we're off!}

{moon mist anyone?}

{a muffin or an apple...difficult decision}

{the morning of the big race, looking dorky and nervous}

{my biggest little fan, after the race}

{my friend Leah came out to cheer me on, it was so nice to see her sweet face}